During examination or self-examination, medical providers and patients make observations that they might like to image and record in the patient's medical record if a convenient scheme to do so was available. 60% of medical imaging data is captured outside of the well-established digital imaging departments of Radiology and Cardiology. Examples include moles and rashes in Dermatology, lesions within Wound Care, abuse cases, surgical procedures, varicose vein treatments, diabetic ulcers, and more. Outside of Radiology and Cardiology, medical facilities struggle in optimizing workflow to capture medical imaging data digitally and to store and share the data on a patient's electronic medical record in an electronic medical record system. Often the digital photographs are printed and stored in locked cabinets and the photographs are lost to future clinical reference.
In certain existing systems, a user loads photographs and/or videos from a camera to a computer, then finds each photograph or video on the computer, associates it with a patient or an exam, and uploads to that patient's medical record. This process, has been time consuming and requires substantial user coordination between the camera, the computer, and the electronic medical record system.
Applicants recognized that better schemes are needed to simplify the process of capturing and storing medical imaging data, including medically related photographs and video, and such solutions are provided by the following description.